Prof. Andres Metspalu, (MD 1976, PhD 1979) Head of the Estonian Biobank, Institute of Genomics, University of Tartu. He was a postdoc at Colombia and Yale University in 1981-1982, 1985 EMBL and 1987 MPI West Berlin. His main scientific interests are human genetics, genomics of complex diseases and population-based biobanks and application of the precision medicine in health care. He was in 1993-1994 at BCM, Houston, as a visiting faculty, in year 2000 at IARC, Lyon, France as a recipient of the International VSS Award and in 2012 sabbatical at University of Lausanne working on human genetics and genomics.
From 1996 to 2008 A. Metspalu was also the head and founder of the MD Center of the Tartu University Hospital. Metspalu is the past (2006) president of the European Society of the Human Genetics. 2010 he was elected to the Estonian Academy of Sciences. He is serving in several national and international committees (Board member of Mission for Cancer in Horizon Europe, SAB member in EATRIS and EIT Health Stockholm) and has received among other awards and honors the Order of the Estonian Red Cross 3rd Class and L’Ordre des Palmes Academiques from the Republic of France. From 2010, he is Doctor Honoris Causa of Vilnius University.
